Historical Traveler Reviews Raglan Hotel London

So convenient

from cleobear

ideally located for alexandra palace (less than 10 mins walk). We stayed for just the 1 night but could have stayed longer. Helpful and courteous staff, clean and well kept bedrooms, even with the hotel going through refurbishment. Excellent breakfast. Would re-vist again.

Terrific Staff

from orlandovette

My daughter from the U.S. is a student at London Metropolitan University near North London. I asked her to find a hotel close to where she is living for our visit. She found Raglan Hall and told me it appeared to be a clean hotel. I checked Trip Advisor like I always do and read nothing but negative comments. Dispite my misgivings I went with my daughter's recommendation. My wife and I stayed with our daughter at Raglan Hall April 16,17 and 18. The lobby is spotless. We were greeted by a very friendly desk clerk. While completing our paperwork another employee came out and gathered our luggage taking it to our room. My wife and I stayed in what they call a family room with our daughter. It was a nice size room. The beds were very comfortable with soft comforters and two big pillows. The room has internet access. The bathroom was clean and supplied with linen and soaps. The hallways did not smell. I have attached a couple of pictures of the breakfast area. The full English breakfast was very good. A young blonde female was constantly bringing out fresh food. She also brought as much hot toast as we asked for...........we left the hotel after three nights and stayed with a friend of ours in south England for several days. We returned to the hotel prior to leaving London. They put us in room (219). The room was very small for three people. I called the desk and asked for a larger room. The clerk immediately gave us a larger room and said she would meet us at the door with the key. The room was excellent. (The customer service was outstanding) ...............the hotel apparently has been refurbished since the prior negative comments. The only negative we experienced was creaking footsteps. The building is old like almost everything in London. You can hear people walking up the stairs and people walking in the room above you. Fortunately for us we got in late every night and it was other guests listening to our footsteps. The lounge is very upscale and is not loud............the bus stop is about 2 blocks away. You have to take #144 to the Turnpike Station to access the tube. My wife and I would not hesitate to return.

Reall,y really, awful

from anonymous

Faulty Towers would have made this place look like the Ritz.

Don't be fooled by the plush looking lobby. Behind the doors awaits a hell hole.

Breakfast is either non existent or raw.

The whole hotel is propped up by ignorant staff.

Next time I'm going to stay in the Kings Cross toilets. It's gotta be better.

Total Disgrace

from anonymous

I stayed in this 'hotel' for one night as i was heading to Ally Pally to see Embrace.

On arrival all looked well and the reception looked lovely. Then it all changed.

I opened the door to the corridoor and the stench hit my nostrils. It was vile.

I climbed the stairs to my room and on opening the door thought id opened the door to a cupboard. It was so tiny. My nose again caught a stench from the room as i avoided the stains over the carpet.

My shower was leaking heavily on arrival and hanging out from the wall. I was scared to lie on the bed due to the shape and smell of it. The fact there were used condom wrappers lying on my floor made me think i was given the room used for bringing back ladies of the night.

Breakfast!! Pfffft. No food at 9am. We sat there with about 8 other couples waiting only for a woman to walk in and call us liars about having no food.

We asked a 'waitress' for some bacon who took 25 mins to bring back one burnt round the edges RAW in the middle piece. Ah well it went with my toast which they cooked on one side only.

I just wanted to leave this hotel so i went upstairs and got my case. I managed to time my leaving at the same time a staff member was heading down the stairs and thought fantastic, they will hold the door open for me, but Oh no, he nearly broke my nose throwing the door closed in my face. I followed him down the stairs through 3 more doors only to have them swing close in my face each time.

I have never stayed in a worst hotel in my life.

Utter disgrace.

A tale of two halves

from puffpod

Stayed 9th November 2005 due to attending White Stripes gig at Ally Pally. Check in was fine, the lass at the counter was friendly and helpful above the din of the ongoing refurbishment works. Corridors were ropey, but rooms are fine if a little tired. Big & clean with chairs and a nice bay window to sit in.

Our room was above the lounge bar, which seems to be open til about 1am (even on a Wednesday!?) but we were knackered so the thud thud of the jukebox didn't matter. What did, however, was the lunatic training the baby elephant in the room above us from about 3am to 7am. Creaks and thumps abound - my wife is a heavy sleeper but even she was woken more than once.

Unfortunately, it all went down hill from here. The Independent I ordered the night before didn't materialise, so I had to talk to my wife during breakfast. And what a breakfast - it is served 7.30am to 9.30am. We got down there at 9am. It's a serve yourself affair, so we had some cereal and then went for the full English: eggs were excellent, sausages were even better, as were the hash browns and the grilled tomatoes. The bacon was that useless paper thin rubbish you come to expect down south, so it didn't matter that there was only one rasher available. The toast was good too, so I had the effrontery to ask for second portion and was met with a dejected sigh and a roll of the eyes by the cheery young lady serving. At about 9.30am I decided I had been a little mean with myself as regards the baked beans and went back for another spoon - whoops, all cleared away already. My wife needed some jam and some more butter - whoops, all cleared away too. Never mind darling I said, we'll make what I've got last. Remember, this is still only 9.30am, and there were 2 other couples still eating besides us. I was awfully glad I had grabbed a pot of yoghurt prematurely or I would have missed out.

The final straw unfortunately came when my side plate, butter knife, and the rest of the toast was cleared away from under my chin while I was half way thru my penultimate piece. Methinks the cheery young lady wanted us to leave - so we took our time eating the yoghurt she had so magnanimously left us, just to see how low her face could actually hang. An absolute disgrace to be honest.

We half expected to get back to our rooms and find all our stuff in the corridor and a couple of chamber maids with pick handles waiting to eject us forcibly. Thankfully, that did not happen and we got organised and left. While checking out (with another hatchet faced misery, what happened to the lovely smiling young lady the evening before?) my missing Independent was handed to me - thanks a bunch, I've really got time to read it now - and added to my bill.

So like I said, a tale of two halves - not bad at all on the Wednesday, diabolical on the Thursday.

Noisy

from AngelaJohn

The hotel is undergoing refurbishment so the plastic sheeting in the lobby is a little disconcerting as a greeting. Checking in was pleasant enough - but there was no offer of help with our bags. Perhaps I was expecting too much for a three star hotel, but with the rack rate of £154 for the room, perhaps not.

Our main complaint, our big complaint, was the absolute lack of any sound proofing! We could hear the people talking in the room above and to the sides, not raised voices but normal speech.

When we mentioned this in the morning the response was 'we've never had this complaint before'. If I ever hear that lame response again I shall scream! The receptionist then went on to talk about the building works and 'noisy' guests. I repeated my original point that the noise was not from any raised voices - but just normal speech. "I'll be sure to raise it with the management". No apology, no acknowledgment of our complaint. Hence the review.

Changed hands now very very quiet hotel & boring

from anonymous

noisy & full of pizza hut staff ?? drinking each other under the table ha ha good on em. if you want a party this is the place to go, I was with mtv crew at alexandra pallace we loved it. night porter (sean) seemed to work day & night & was always helpful, as was max & bryan (breakfast cheff) who we pounced on as he was just getting in to work at 5 am to get him to make 30 of us bacon rolls by 515 am they were in our bellys ! thanks bryan... and vera (lovely lady)

only thing i didnt like was that the office staff felt they were too important to help customers & always seemed to be on a break & couldnt help, i think led by the office manager (turkish girl) who seemed to be at war with everyone. we needed isdn to broadcast live feeds back to base, even tho they promoted it office staff didnt know what it was or where to find it. then the night porter started work & in the space of 10 mins he set up a room for our equipment with isdn links & let us work away through the night.

rooms were very clean tv reception poor

24 hr bar that never had a bar man was always empty during the day but came alive at 2am.

Very expensive for what it is.

from anonymous

Rooms are above a function room so don't expect to get a good night sleep before midnight!

Rooms above the kitchen door can hear it banging until the early hours and then are woken by it at 6.10 am every morning!

You must time when you go to the buffet breakfast if you are to get an egg or toast!

The rooms are much smaller than the image on the net.

Was told the room had satellite TV but it didn't.

Only put the heating on every other day!

Loved the Breakfast

from anonymous

We had the opportunity of staying in this lovely, old but refurbished, spotlessly clean, hotel for about 10 days last month. We found the staff to be not just helpful, but friendly and easy to approach. The breakfasts were fantastic and so was the ambience of this lovely place. All credit to Duncan and his staff, particularly Carmen ( who's been there 20years now) Eric on the Front desk along with Jay and the very nice girls in the breakfast room and room service.

It was a great area to stay in and very easy to get around using the buses and underground.

Could be cleaner

from anonymous

Landed in England on Sept. 14. Took train to KIng,s Cross and then the underground to Bounds Green and then a bus to our hotel in Muswel HIlls ,which in Northen London ,It was a Best Western on Queens ave. The room turn out to be very small and not that clean,but as we were tried and just want to sleep after the long journey and also we would not be spenting that much time there ,we decided it would be okay. I thought Best Western hotel would be better,as I worked for them a few years ago and their standard were good ,that was why I chose it. I found London to be very dirty and untidy ,they have no reclying in place so there are bottles cans etc. laying everywhere. People just throw to the ground also because there is a lack of garbage bins. Things are expense including meals,hotel rooms and generally just buying anything,but we did except that so we took the bad with the good. It is a great City for culture and things to see and I would not of missed for all the world ,Would I go back in a heart beat

TripAdvisor Reviews Raglan Hotel London

Good

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